Part 32: Battles #26 and #27: King Ramladu

Runefaust at last! The long and perilous journey is near its end. It is up to the Shining Force Whether it ends as a triumph for Light or Darkness.



Right as we enter town, we find a strange object in a bush...



It's a shuriken with a note attached to it! We now have a ninja under our command.





The locals don't seem to care for Darksol, and welcome us freely.



Unfortunately, since our last archer is sidelined now that Hanzo has joined us, the weapon shop doesn't have anything useful for us. Nor is there anything to loot in town, so we might as well go see Mahato.









Alright, track down Darksol and kill anything that gets in our way.

In other words, just keep doing what we have been.





Into the castle we go.









Rather than concentrating on reviving Dark Dragon, Darksol pops in to monologue at us a bit before teleporting off.

A little further inside and...



Ramladu threatens us briefly before running off, leaving a warm trail of urine behind him.

Two new enemies, both of which with tons of HP and fun defense-ignoring attacks.



Blue Dragons



Chimaeras



In total, there are 5 Chimaeras, 3 Blue Dragons, 3 Cerberii, 3 Horsemen, 3 Armed Skeletons, and 2 High Priests in our way.



Since just about everything hits hard and/or through defense, it's wise to set up solid formations in which none of your units can be attacked from several sides.



Tao roasts the first Chimaera.



While Musashi and Hanzou dice the second one.



Zylo took a pummeling from a couple Chimaeras, but Arthur showed up just in time to save him.





Fun fact: Chimaeras are weak to ice.



Somehow, Gillian has taken over as the group nuker. I don't mind. Freeze/Blaze 4 are still good against high-HP enemies and bosses.



Zylo gets rid of the last Chimaera.



Domingo further weakens one of the dragons and kills one of the horsemen.



Arthur disposes of the middle dragon.



While Guntz gets rid of the left one.





Tao and Anri can still be really useful given a chance.



Gillian kills the last Blue Dragon.



Domingo softens up the Armed Skeleton group a bit.



Enabling Hanzou, Arthur, and Kokichi to clean it up.



Since I really want to get Freeze 4 for him, I let Domingo soften up the Cerberus group, as well.



Kokichi and Musashi clean up the mess, ending the battle.

Having bought enough time to change his pants, Ramladu finds his way back to us.







We begin the new battle completely surrounded! In front of us is Ramladu. Behind us are 6 Steel Claws and 6 Torch Eyes.



Torasu is killed before half my party even has a chance to act.



I'm forced to go straight for Ramladu, since I don't want to deal with laser-blitzkrieg from all the robots.



Fortunately for us, Gillian hits fucking hard.





Gillian swings twice, critically hitting once. Ramladu is cut in fucking half before he even got a chance to act.











Having finally committed regicide, we make our way to the hidden staircase, leading outside of Runefaust.



In order to unseal the Ancient Gate, there's something we must first do. Gillian makes his way as far west as he can and raises the Chaos Breaker towards the heavens... / Backup



The land itself trembles as the legacy of the Ancients surfaces for the first time in a millennium.



The Ancient Gate is identical to the one we fought our first battle at, back in Guardiana. In a way, our journey has now come full circle.

Next update: Beyond the unsealed gate.